Rachel Lazerus
@rachellazerus.bsky.social
Mom of three and a recovering policy wonk. Openly sincere on main. Definitely sleep-deprived. She/her
Pinned
Rachel Lazerus
@rachellazerus.bsky.social
· Sep 20
Do you actually want me to explain why I think this way, or are you being reflexively defiant at anyone who doesn't agree with your interpretation of the narrative? Because I've got stuff to do today.
Reposted by Rachel Lazerus
We are deciding right now whether we want to be a country with ethnic cleansing and concentration camps.
This is another effort that has taken a HUGE amount of local activism, led by community folks who care.
It CAN be done. Get involved where you live and push back.
www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/i...
It CAN be done. Get involved where you live and push back.
www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/i...
New Mexico Senate approves bill to ban ICE detention centers
The New Mexico Legislature approved the Immigration Safety Act. House bill 9 bars the state from allowing ICE detention centers.
www.elpasotimes.com
February 5, 2026 at 2:01 AM
We are deciding right now whether we want to be a country with ethnic cleansing and concentration camps.
Reposted by Rachel Lazerus
Someday, everyone needs to reckon with the utterly blasé attitude with which the internet left invokes the slaughter in Gaza as a rhetorical cudgel to beat social media enemies with.
It cheapens the suffering, has no positive benefit at all, and turns a real war crime into a meme. It’s disgusting.
It cheapens the suffering, has no positive benefit at all, and turns a real war crime into a meme. It’s disgusting.
February 5, 2026 at 2:59 AM
Someday, everyone needs to reckon with the utterly blasé attitude with which the internet left invokes the slaughter in Gaza as a rhetorical cudgel to beat social media enemies with.
It cheapens the suffering, has no positive benefit at all, and turns a real war crime into a meme. It’s disgusting.
It cheapens the suffering, has no positive benefit at all, and turns a real war crime into a meme. It’s disgusting.
Reposted by Rachel Lazerus
There are actual ways to help the people in Gaza and the West Bank. But those ways are private and don’t get you social media likes.
They don’t allow you to scold people you don’t like online. They aren’t something you can use to dunk on “shitlibs” you hate.
Making Gaza a meme is reprehensible.
They don’t allow you to scold people you don’t like online. They aren’t something you can use to dunk on “shitlibs” you hate.
Making Gaza a meme is reprehensible.
February 5, 2026 at 3:08 AM
There are actual ways to help the people in Gaza and the West Bank. But those ways are private and don’t get you social media likes.
They don’t allow you to scold people you don’t like online. They aren’t something you can use to dunk on “shitlibs” you hate.
Making Gaza a meme is reprehensible.
They don’t allow you to scold people you don’t like online. They aren’t something you can use to dunk on “shitlibs” you hate.
Making Gaza a meme is reprehensible.
Reposted by Rachel Lazerus
"What will anti-fascism look like in an age when naked racism and white nationalism are, at least as far as the ruling party is concerned, closer to selling points than they are cause for shame and embarrassment? The answer is on the news every day."
Read about @letsgomathias.bsky.social's new book
Read about @letsgomathias.bsky.social's new book
On Surveilling, Infiltrating, and Disrupting Fascists in America | Inkstick
In a new book, journalist Christopher Mathias sets about the difficult task of chronicling anti-fascist activists who seek neither acclaim nor reward.
inkstickmedia.com
February 5, 2026 at 12:45 PM
"What will anti-fascism look like in an age when naked racism and white nationalism are, at least as far as the ruling party is concerned, closer to selling points than they are cause for shame and embarrassment? The answer is on the news every day."
Read about @letsgomathias.bsky.social's new book
Read about @letsgomathias.bsky.social's new book
Reposted by Rachel Lazerus
“President Trump is plunging in the polls, and many of his policies are being defeated, either legislatively or through the courts. That’s worth celebrating.”
@olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social, author of Elite Capture, interviewed for @newrepublic.com:
newrepublic.com/article/2059...
@olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social, author of Elite Capture, interviewed for @newrepublic.com:
newrepublic.com/article/2059...
Trump Is Losing A Lot. We Must Celebrate Our Victories
Georgetown philosophy professor Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò explains why it’s vital for those resisting Trump to acknowledge and share their successes, both large and small.
newrepublic.com
February 5, 2026 at 10:54 AM
“President Trump is plunging in the polls, and many of his policies are being defeated, either legislatively or through the courts. That’s worth celebrating.”
@olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social, author of Elite Capture, interviewed for @newrepublic.com:
newrepublic.com/article/2059...
@olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social, author of Elite Capture, interviewed for @newrepublic.com:
newrepublic.com/article/2059...
Reposted by Rachel Lazerus
🚨 New: We built a visual tracker of the warehouses ICE is targeting across the US.
Working off an idea from @actualkatherine.bsky.social, we’ve mapped active searches, canceled deals, and linked state property records.
Explore the map here: tinyurl.com/ICEWarehouse...
Working off an idea from @actualkatherine.bsky.social, we’ve mapped active searches, canceled deals, and linked state property records.
Explore the map here: tinyurl.com/ICEWarehouse...
February 4, 2026 at 6:41 PM
🚨 New: We built a visual tracker of the warehouses ICE is targeting across the US.
Working off an idea from @actualkatherine.bsky.social, we’ve mapped active searches, canceled deals, and linked state property records.
Explore the map here: tinyurl.com/ICEWarehouse...
Working off an idea from @actualkatherine.bsky.social, we’ve mapped active searches, canceled deals, and linked state property records.
Explore the map here: tinyurl.com/ICEWarehouse...
Reposted by Rachel Lazerus
I like to refer to the US-Mexican War as the War of Northern Aggression.
February 5, 2026 at 4:17 AM
I like to refer to the US-Mexican War as the War of Northern Aggression.
Reposted by Rachel Lazerus
So, remember that Episcopal bishop in New Hampshire that told priests to get their wills in order because “we are entering a new era of martyrdom"?
I ran across historical precedent for that today.
It's from a radio transcript @rns.org produced about a Lutheran bishop in Denmark…
…in 1943.
I ran across historical precedent for that today.
It's from a radio transcript @rns.org produced about a Lutheran bishop in Denmark…
…in 1943.
February 5, 2026 at 1:21 AM
So, remember that Episcopal bishop in New Hampshire that told priests to get their wills in order because “we are entering a new era of martyrdom"?
I ran across historical precedent for that today.
It's from a radio transcript @rns.org produced about a Lutheran bishop in Denmark…
…in 1943.
I ran across historical precedent for that today.
It's from a radio transcript @rns.org produced about a Lutheran bishop in Denmark…
…in 1943.
Reposted by Rachel Lazerus
And what I took from the judge’s comments in this hearing is that he doesn’t care literally at all whether it’s intentional, inept, malicious, chaotic, whatever. When a judge tells you that you have someone locked up who should not be locked up, you have to make it a priority to get them out.
I think it's pretty clear from the transcript of the Julie Le hearing that ICE/DHS is intentionally setting up a defective system of detention so that it can use the purported failures of the "system" as an excuse to ignore or delay complying with court orders
February 4, 2026 at 11:42 PM
And what I took from the judge’s comments in this hearing is that he doesn’t care literally at all whether it’s intentional, inept, malicious, chaotic, whatever. When a judge tells you that you have someone locked up who should not be locked up, you have to make it a priority to get them out.
Reposted by Rachel Lazerus
Hello. I’m a former firefighter. If you make me come put out your protest dumpster fire, you force me to work in visible opposition to a movement I’m aligned with.
Don’t make me do that please. Just stick to whistles and signs and cameras.
Thank you
Don’t make me do that please. Just stick to whistles and signs and cameras.
Thank you
February 4, 2026 at 12:50 AM
Hello. I’m a former firefighter. If you make me come put out your protest dumpster fire, you force me to work in visible opposition to a movement I’m aligned with.
Don’t make me do that please. Just stick to whistles and signs and cameras.
Thank you
Don’t make me do that please. Just stick to whistles and signs and cameras.
Thank you
Reposted by Rachel Lazerus
ICE at the polls! Bannon is basically yelling “fire” in a crowded theater here. His objective is to cause chaos (and suppress votes on the left). And it’s already working.
This threat works on multiple levels and doesn’t have to be “real” to serve its purpose.
Let me explain & offer some advice.
This threat works on multiple levels and doesn’t have to be “real” to serve its purpose.
Let me explain & offer some advice.
Steve Bannon says the federal government is planning to send ICE officers to patrol polling stations during the midterms.
"We're going to have ICE surround the polls come November."
"We're not going to sit here and allow you to steal the country again." www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
"We're going to have ICE surround the polls come November."
"We're not going to sit here and allow you to steal the country again." www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
Steve Bannon says ICE will ‘surround the polls’ as Trump doubles down on taking over elections
Trump doubled down on his comments to nationalize voting Tuesday during an Oval Office press conference. “If you think about it, a state is an agent for the federal government in elections,” Trump sai...
www.democracydocket.com
February 4, 2026 at 9:13 PM
ICE at the polls! Bannon is basically yelling “fire” in a crowded theater here. His objective is to cause chaos (and suppress votes on the left). And it’s already working.
This threat works on multiple levels and doesn’t have to be “real” to serve its purpose.
Let me explain & offer some advice.
This threat works on multiple levels and doesn’t have to be “real” to serve its purpose.
Let me explain & offer some advice.
Reposted by Rachel Lazerus
I taught a class on “hope” last year and the few theorists who’ve written on it all point out that hope is the harder choice - that despair is easy and too often fashionable
Too many people on Bluesky think that relentless expressions of despair are a sign of intellectual sophistication.
February 4, 2026 at 9:24 PM
I taught a class on “hope” last year and the few theorists who’ve written on it all point out that hope is the harder choice - that despair is easy and too often fashionable
Reposted by Rachel Lazerus
We just posted this fantastic new interview w/ @letsgomathias.bsky.social about his new book covering undercover antifa operatives exposed the new far right. We also talked about Charlottesville, Minneapolis and more.
🎙️: bit.ly/4qaJuw9
🎙️: bit.ly/4qaJuw9
February 4, 2026 at 9:25 PM
We just posted this fantastic new interview w/ @letsgomathias.bsky.social about his new book covering undercover antifa operatives exposed the new far right. We also talked about Charlottesville, Minneapolis and more.
🎙️: bit.ly/4qaJuw9
🎙️: bit.ly/4qaJuw9
Reposted by Rachel Lazerus
If I were to condense down Lessons of Zohran into 2-3 principles, it would be something like
1. Do the actual work, hit the actual doors.
2. Have a real-ass film production team, with a vision and confidence
3. Love my bean-counters, we need you elsewhere, but: we're picking for real-ass charisma
1. Do the actual work, hit the actual doors.
2. Have a real-ass film production team, with a vision and confidence
3. Love my bean-counters, we need you elsewhere, but: we're picking for real-ass charisma
It's making me lose my mind the number of pundits saying the lesson is people are weirdly obsessed w/ Mamdani when the lesson is that most Dems need to be much better at taking credit + communicating their wins.
Chat is it bad Mamdani understands 2026 politics? Jake Anbinder & others say "maybe"
Chat is it bad Mamdani understands 2026 politics? Jake Anbinder & others say "maybe"
February 4, 2026 at 8:14 PM
If I were to condense down Lessons of Zohran into 2-3 principles, it would be something like
1. Do the actual work, hit the actual doors.
2. Have a real-ass film production team, with a vision and confidence
3. Love my bean-counters, we need you elsewhere, but: we're picking for real-ass charisma
1. Do the actual work, hit the actual doors.
2. Have a real-ass film production team, with a vision and confidence
3. Love my bean-counters, we need you elsewhere, but: we're picking for real-ass charisma
Reposted by Rachel Lazerus
As always, the answer to "what should I do if I'm worried about Rs loudly announcing their aspirations to try & ratfuck elections?" is go volunteer to be a poll worker or an elections observer. That is, if you actually want to so something beyond just wallowing in despair & untreated anxiety online
February 4, 2026 at 6:36 PM
As always, the answer to "what should I do if I'm worried about Rs loudly announcing their aspirations to try & ratfuck elections?" is go volunteer to be a poll worker or an elections observer. That is, if you actually want to so something beyond just wallowing in despair & untreated anxiety online
Reposted by Rachel Lazerus
Jeffrey Bezos is destroying the Washington Post for the same reason Musk destroyed Twitter and Ellison is destroying CBS—oligarchs oppose the free press when if it threatens their wealth and power.
They don’t want normal people to see what is happening in America.
They don’t want normal people to see what is happening in America.
February 4, 2026 at 2:47 PM
Jeffrey Bezos is destroying the Washington Post for the same reason Musk destroyed Twitter and Ellison is destroying CBS—oligarchs oppose the free press when if it threatens their wealth and power.
They don’t want normal people to see what is happening in America.
They don’t want normal people to see what is happening in America.
Reposted by Rachel Lazerus
can’t not hear and see:
February 4, 2026 at 6:36 PM
can’t not hear and see:
Reposted by Rachel Lazerus
The world kind of sucks right now, but this project sparks a little bit of hope for me. I like it because it's not toxic positivity, these are real projects that we can scale up and support.
February 4, 2026 at 12:44 PM
The world kind of sucks right now, but this project sparks a little bit of hope for me. I like it because it's not toxic positivity, these are real projects that we can scale up and support.
Reposted by Rachel Lazerus
Future Mending Radio Season 2 has begun!
In this podcast, I profile the people and organizations that are already experimenting with a better future.
If you're new to the podcast this episode is a quick overview of the project so far.
www.buzzsprout.com/2396702/epis...
In this podcast, I profile the people and organizations that are already experimenting with a better future.
If you're new to the podcast this episode is a quick overview of the project so far.
www.buzzsprout.com/2396702/epis...
Start Here - Future Mending Radio
We're back!This episode combines some thoughts on the current moment (including Mark Carney's recent speech in Davos) with a quick look back on Season 1 and the Future Mending Project so far.Mark Carn...
www.buzzsprout.com
February 4, 2026 at 12:39 PM
Future Mending Radio Season 2 has begun!
In this podcast, I profile the people and organizations that are already experimenting with a better future.
If you're new to the podcast this episode is a quick overview of the project so far.
www.buzzsprout.com/2396702/epis...
In this podcast, I profile the people and organizations that are already experimenting with a better future.
If you're new to the podcast this episode is a quick overview of the project so far.
www.buzzsprout.com/2396702/epis...
Reposted by Rachel Lazerus
Some years ago, I was chatting with a Retropolis reader, a young history student, and I mentioned there were several dozen people enslaved in New Jersey up until the day the 13th Amendment kicked in in December 1865.
Y’all. He identified every one of them.
njs.libraries.rutgers.edu/index.php/nj...
Y’all. He identified every one of them.
njs.libraries.rutgers.edu/index.php/nj...
February 4, 2026 at 2:45 AM
Some years ago, I was chatting with a Retropolis reader, a young history student, and I mentioned there were several dozen people enslaved in New Jersey up until the day the 13th Amendment kicked in in December 1865.
Y’all. He identified every one of them.
njs.libraries.rutgers.edu/index.php/nj...
Y’all. He identified every one of them.
njs.libraries.rutgers.edu/index.php/nj...
Reposted by Rachel Lazerus
As an aside, Rachel is a legend. (From Fischer’s “African Founders”)
February 4, 2026 at 1:02 PM
As an aside, Rachel is a legend. (From Fischer’s “African Founders”)
Reposted by Rachel Lazerus
under different circumstances this is congressional-inquiry level scandal
I talked to a woman who quit an AUSA job recently. She was asked by main DOJ to dismiss a Medicare fraud prosecution because the defendant was the daughter of a girlfriend of a MAGA figure.
February 4, 2026 at 12:42 PM
under different circumstances this is congressional-inquiry level scandal
Reposted by Rachel Lazerus
Some people think the danger has passed (though it clearly has not) and so they're free to go back to what they really care about: ensuring they and not their presumed ideological enemies are running the resistance movement.
February 3, 2026 at 11:40 PM
Some people think the danger has passed (though it clearly has not) and so they're free to go back to what they really care about: ensuring they and not their presumed ideological enemies are running the resistance movement.
Reposted by Rachel Lazerus
and quite frankly i am sick and fucking tired of it and it's a really big part of how we got here
"Until we get our act together, all of you, until we learn to plug in with each other, and fight [...] we are as good as dead."
"Until we get our act together, all of you, until we learn to plug in with each other, and fight [...] we are as good as dead."
February 3, 2026 at 9:33 PM
and quite frankly i am sick and fucking tired of it and it's a really big part of how we got here
"Until we get our act together, all of you, until we learn to plug in with each other, and fight [...] we are as good as dead."
"Until we get our act together, all of you, until we learn to plug in with each other, and fight [...] we are as good as dead."
Reposted by Rachel Lazerus
every single Movement in my living memory that's had something genuinely important to the betterment of our culture has been, without fail, parasitized by agitators and useful idiots who fucked it dry of anything good and important and hard and true it was demanding of us as people
February 3, 2026 at 9:33 PM
every single Movement in my living memory that's had something genuinely important to the betterment of our culture has been, without fail, parasitized by agitators and useful idiots who fucked it dry of anything good and important and hard and true it was demanding of us as people